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Here is a Google image of Dodge ram 3500. EVEN IF YOU NEED A CAR, NO ONE NEEDS A VEHICLE THIS BIG.
But how else can you ensure a 100% fatality rate of everything you run over.
And also make sure that you don't have to see the poor people as you run them over.
It's wild how there's this kind of evolutionary pressure to turn the grills into ever bigger and more menacing threat displays and it just keeps spiralling out of control because the cars in the rear view mirror only keep getting bigger and more intimidating and you constantly need to buy a new ego prosthetic in the form of a suburban tank like this to keep up with the other drivers that signal "I'M GONNA EAT YOU ALIVE" to you during every commute and grocery run. I'm sure manufacturers love that.
I need a pickup truck for farm work, but I hate how big these things have gotten. I wouldn't buy anything made in the past 20 years. All this height for no practical benefit.
Legit, like i understand having a use for that big open storage solution but seeing how they are now too tall to reach is odd as heck.
Old trucks are actual working trucks. The bed is low enough to easily lift heavy objects into. Modern trucks have no practical purpose in mind. They're purely aesthetic. Nearly any load you're lifting into that thing can also be hauled in almost any other vehicle easier. You'd need a forklift to load anything substantial, in which case an old truck or a van would be easier.
We already have horses for that, and you don't even need to drive them yourself.
So it would've been fine and dandy if the cyclist had been killed by someone driving a Prius?
'Cause that's what you imply by placing this bullshit emphasis trying to single out big trucks in particular. Comments like yours reek of implied small-car apologism, and I, for one, am getting sick and hired of it!
There's a reason this community is called "fuck cars," and not "fuck big trucks" or something. it's because the problem is cars — all of them!
Any car, even the smallest, can turn a pedestrian or cyclist into a red smear when driven negligently.
Every car, even the smallest, takes up an entire lane on the street and an entire parking space.
Every car, even the smallest, contributes to car-dependent urban design.
Singling out big trucks as if they're materially worse than all the other death machines is nothing but a distraction from the real problem at best, and an active disinformation campaign at worst. Our goals should be to get people out of cars entirely, not just into smaller ones!
No, it probably wouldn't have happened in the first place, because the driver of a sensibly-sized car can see things that are less than fifty fucking feet ahead of the dash.
Monstrous behemoths like this should be prohibitively expensive to own for personal use and/or be restricted to industrial/ag use only. Fuck your camping or hauling one chair or whatever the fuck you do twice a year. You can rent for something that seldom.
No, it probably wouldn't have happened in the first place, because the driver of a sensibly-sized car can see things that are less than fifty fucking feet ahead of the dash.
[X] doubt
If big trucks were banned, muderous MAGA psychopaths would just mow down cyclists using Dodge Chargers or whatever instead.
I'm pretty fucking far as anti-car sentiment goes but to think that a meaningful amount of cyclists killed via cars is people doing it intentionally is insane. You can kill a man dead in a Smart ForTwo easily but let's not pretend the giant driving blind spots and especially the cultural messaging that goes along with HUGE ANGY TRUCK (/ CAR) doesn't help
The thing is, they are materially worse than other consumer vehicles. They do all the bad things but more, and their normalization makes it all worse for everyone -- have you seen the size of parking spaces in Europe?
they are materially worse than other consumer vehicles
Not in the way that actually matters, which is their effect on low-density zoning and minimum parking requirements. A parking space is a parking space is a parking space — they're all (roughly) the same size!
no they arent lol, you try parking one of those american cars in this city...
you can get away with owning one in the suburbs, but just parking on the side of the street like most people do? forgetaboutit
i do agree with the wider point though. get rid of all of them, nobody needs private cars. in fact, life on earth desperately needs us to ban private cars.
Fuck cars but trucks and SUVs are more dangerous than cars to pedestrians, and to argue otherwise just makes you look silly
https://youtu.be/jN7mSXMruEo?t=521
active disinformation campaign at worst
Relax
Yes, it is funny that folks here apparently just want to circlejerk scapegoating big trucks while downvoting any actual urbanist who dares to point out that they're focusing on the wrong problem.
I just wish that those of you with actually good points were capable to conveying it without coming across as a fucking insane person.
That's fair. My frustration about the truck circlejerking has been building for a while, and I was venting.
It's so fucking annoying when I'm trying to turn and check for oncoming traffic and one of these or its smaller cousins pulls up next to me so I can't see
But I need to pick up 50 lbs of mulch from Home Depot once a year 😭😭😭
in case anyone does not want to click the link here is the whole article:
Brian Hammons, 55, faces hit-run and criminally negligent homicide charges.
SALEM, Ore. (KOIN) — A man turned himself into investigators on Sunday after fatally striking a bicyclist on a highway, then leaving the scene, according to Oregon State Police.
Brian Hammons, 55, faces hit-run and criminally negligent homicide charges.
Just after 7 p.m. Saturday, police say they responded to the collision in Marion County on Hwy 64 near milepost 5. According to investigators, the bicyclist, Harley Austin, 42, was riding south in the bike lane on Hwy 164 through the intersection of Talbot Rd SE when Hammons, who was driving a Dodge Ram 3500, turned onto the highway and collided with Austin. New Level 3 ‘Go Now’ evacuations issued for Bedrock Fire
Austin was taken to Salem Hospital, and was later pronounced dead, OSP said.
Authorities allege that Hammons left the scene after the arrival of medical personnel but before law enforcement arrived. He turned himself in the next day and was lodged in the Marion County Jail.
The investigation is ongoing. Any witnesses of the incident are being encouraged to contact OSP, referencing case SP23-252845.
The article seems fine to me...the title is just a little bit strange probably because they wanted to mention "bike" in it to differentiate it from a crash that doesn't involve a cyclist.
Just after 7 p.m. Saturday, police say they responded to the collision in Marion County on Hwy 64 near milepost 5. According to investigators, the bicyclist, Harley Austin, 42, was riding south in the bike lane on Hwy 164 through the intersection of Talbot Rd SE when Hammons, who was driving a Dodge Ram 3500, turned onto the highway and collided with Austin.
Why is there a bike lane on a highway?
To be clear, I'm not taking the side of the driver. Fuck people with unnecessarily huge vehicles. I side with cyclists almost 100% of the time. But this just sounds unsafe.
To me, a highway means speeds in excess of 50mph. That isn't a place where we should have a body unprotected sharing the road.
usually for the sole purpose of being a revenue generating speed trap. In fact I just looked it up and this intersection is a school zone with a 20mph speed limit.
You think maybe there's other reasons bar revenue traps at play here then?
There's also the word "usually" there, and I stick by it. Nice gotcha tho.
Maybe even if it's not a school zone there could be reasons you might want to limit car speeds that have nothing to do with revenue traps is my point
Braking really isn't that hard in a car and it's not like you lose a meaningful amount of time doing the speed limit for a podunk town. This entire argument can only begin to make sense with a lot of carbrained entitlement
Bikes are fine on highways. On freeways that are enclosed and its impossible to roll onto ground or terrain probably not, which is why freeways have rules against it.
I think some rural states don't, and they even allow horses and pedestrians.
In California, if there is not a parallel alternative route for bicycles to take, they are allowed on the freeway. Many parts of the 101 freeway fit this exception. State highway 130 (look it up on google maps) is a favorite of cyclists. It is a two lane state highway with a 40 MPH speed limit. for most of its length, there are no shoulders. In many places, the white line on the edge of the lane is also the edge of a vertical cliff. There are places where I have seen an SUV in front of me with one wheel on the white line, and the other on the double yellow line because the lane is so narrow. The road is so winding that there are very few places where you can even get to the speed limit, let alone exceed the speed limit. But bicyclists love it because it was built to allow horse drawn wagons to haul heavy loads to the top of a 4000' peak, so it has a very gentle grade, and there are great views along its entire length.
Huh. I use "highway" and "freeway" interchangeably. Just did a search and found the following, so thanks for enlightening me:
Highways have controlled areas, and traffic lights, tend to be placed in rural areas and always allow you to drive off. Freeways have higher speed limits and are, in essence, a faster way to get from one city to the other with minimal traffic control.
I guess maybe this is a result of my having grown up in a midwestern state where both could exist without distinction. TIL.
im not even american so maybe my definition isnt applicable for you.
